Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering
Walter Scott, Jr. College of Engineering
Global evidence points to the effectiveness of glacial erosion on mountainous landscapes, yet a potentially important and understudied impact of glaciation is the role of glacially derived sediment on river erosion rates. Glaciers produce large quantities and sizes of bedload, which are passed to downstream rivers or left behind in glacial deposits. The mobility of bedload mediates bedrock river erosion rates as the bedload acts in turn as a tool to erode and a cover to protect against erosion. Here, I’ll examine the effect of glacially-derived sediment loads on bedrock river erosion through a numerical modeling experiment. I’ll end by comparing model results against field evidence of bedrock river profiles and sediment attrition rates in the Colorado Sangre de Cristo mountains.
Dr. Sarah Schanz is a fluvial geomorphologist who studies bedrock rivers and their impact on landscapes. She is an Assistant Professor in Geology at Colorado College where she works collaboratively with a team of student researchers on mountainous river erosion and landforms in the Colorado Rockies. Prior to Colorado, she was a postdoctoral researcher at Indiana University Bloomington and got her PhD at the University of Washington and BS at Western Washington University.